Yesterday afternoon i began preparation of a Spainsh-style lamb stew for dinner last night. I started with around 2 1/2 pounds of Churro lamb stew meat, which I braised in 4 cups of rich lamb stock and a can of chopped tomatoes, seasoned with onion, garlic, bay leaves, rosemary, oregano. After about two hours of simmering I added 3 Tbs of bittersweet and 1 Tb of hot smoked Spanish paprika. Then i simmered the mix for another hour or so and took out the bay leaves, added a small jar of tomato pate, and covered the pan since the sauce was reducing very nicely. After another hour of cooking, the lamb was nice and tender, so I turned off the heat.
Then Jeff Pfohl arrived from the Rio Grande Wine Tasting, so I started cooking the fettucine, and set out our appetizers of: stuffed calamari in a sauce of its own ink, lightly smoked filet of yellow-fin tuna, and mini-chorizo with a light mustard. These were enjoyed with a 2004 Niño Jesús Tinto Esticillo Legado Viña Viejo - fairly simple, with nice fruit, reasonable acidity and light tannins, and a medium fruity finish. We had the appetizer around our coffee table in the living room, while listening to Villa Lobos String Quartets.
With about four minutes left in the cooking of the fettucine, I added a cup and a half of green peas. I also turned on the heat under the stew. I drained the fettucine and peas and added a couple tablespoons of butter. I then plated the fettucine and the stew and served them. We enjoyed the food with two Ribera del Dueros: a 1999 Condado de Haza and a 2002 Flor de Pingus - both were quite good, but a bit different. The Flor, although from a disastrous year, was a nice fruity wine, since Peter Sisseck didn’t bottle a Pingus in '02, all the Pingus fruit was used in the Flor. It’s probably not an ager, but drinks well now. The Haza was a bit darker and richer, and drinking nicely at what is probably the start of a long drinking window.
Then for dessert back out in the living room we had some more of the delicious Ciao Bella Gelatos, chocolate and vanilla, with the same two tequila liqueurs - Coquila and Patrón XO Café - tonight the creamy Coquila was best with the vanilla and the rich XO with the chocolate.
A lovely evening after a warm day that saw all of yesterday’s snow disappear.